The present disclosure relates generally to communications between electronic devices and in particular to two-way delivery of content using proxy and proxied devices.
Mobile electronic devices, such as laptops, palmtops, mobile phones, smart phones, multimedia phones, portable media players, GPS units, mobile gaming systems, etc., have become quite popular. Many users carry a device almost everywhere they go and use their device for a variety of purposes, including making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages and emails, navigation (e.g., using maps and/or a GPS receiver), purchasing items in stores (e.g., using contactless payment systems), and/or accessing the Internet (e.g., to look up information). A user's mobile device can be carried or worn and perform a variety of smart functions in addition to traditional functions formerly implemented by a single application-specific device.
Mobile devices can have applications that access a variety of content, such as email and websites, streaming audio/video, social media, and the like. Some applications can periodically receive notifications from services that new content is available. Such applications can include “push” e-mail services (e.g., MobileMe, Microsoft Exchange, ActiveSync, Push-IMAP, Yahoo! Push, etc.), or other push services (e.g., update/upgrade services, news services, web blog services, podcast services, social networking services, or other types of services where notification messages may be sent). Notification messages typically represent events of interest, which are typically defined by the applications (e.g., new e-mail indicator, new news item indicator, new podcast indicator, change of on-line status of a social networking friend, etc.).
The increase in the use of mobile devices magnifies the complexity of routing notification messages to these devices. One problem is that many users more frequently carry around multiple mobile devices almost everywhere they go increasing the complexity of routing content to the right devices. Another problem is that users use their devices for a variety of overlapping and non-overlapping purposes making it more difficult to determine which of a users' two mobile devices having the same application installed is the intended destination of content. Furthermore, given that some mobile devices are not inherently addressable, it is difficult to route messages to these mobile devices, particularly on a large scale when multiple devices per user are in use, when it is not known how to contact the devices.
Accordingly, what is desired is to solve problems relating to coordinating and handling the delivery of content to and from user devices, some of which may be discussed herein. Additionally, what is desired is to reduce drawbacks relating to power management and efficiency when delivering content to and from user devices while also extending the functionality and accessibility of these devices, some of which may be discussed herein.